Conejo School District accepts bid for surplus property

The Conejo Valley Unified School District’s Board of Education accepted a $3.286 million bid for surplus property it owns in the Rancho Conejo Industrial Park in Thousand Oaks.

The winning oral bid came from Ponte Verde Properties at the board’s Tuesday evening meeting and followed the opening of sealed written bids. The highest written conforming bid was $3.13 million.

In November 2011, Ponte Verde bid $4 million for the 10.7-acre site on Conejo Center Drive.

But after months of talks, the school district and the developer were unable to reach an agreement, partly because the developer sought a lower price and partly because his offer was contingent on being able to execute a lease agreement for an adjoining property owned by the city of Thousand Oaks, which he was unable to do.

In April, the board unanimously voted to end negotiations with Ponte Verde and put the Conejo Center Drive parcel back on the market with a minimum bid of $3.1 million.

Superintendent Jeff Baarstad said the district accepted that the original appraisal of $4 million for the site was in error because at least 3.5 acres of the parcel are significant slopes, some of which is unsuitable for construction.

“We had the property reappraised, and it came in at about $3 million so we set the minimum bid at $3.1 million,” Baarstad said Wednesday.

“Nothing prevented them from bidding again, and they met all the requirements of the RFP, and we hope to reach an agreement soon. We look forward to working with them, but we’re not going to spend as much time in negotiations as we did before,” he said.

Two other developers asked to be kept on record as backup bidders should the deal with Ponte Verde fall through.

The district is selling the Conejo Center Drive property along with 10 acres on Kelley Road that currently houses a maintenance facility and Conejo Valley High School. It will use the money to help pay for a new campus for the continuation high school.

Last month, the district accepted a bid from green homes developer City Ventures of $10.1 million for the Kelley Road site.

In other business, the board unanimously approved the district’s new wellness policy that bans the use of food or candy in the classroom as a reward for students and limits classroom celebrations and birthday recognitions involving food or beverage during the school day to no more than two per class per month.

Before the vote, Colleen Briner-Schmidt, president of the Unified Association of Conejo Teachers urged the district to rethink the birthday policy.

“This may seem reasonable to an adult. But a child’s birthday is his or her birthday, and they don’t understand delaying it to one day and sharing it with others,” Briner-Schmidt said. “I believe this is developmentally inappropriate and unnecessary.”

“There is no restriction on the recognition of a child’s birthday on the child’s birthday,” said board member Betsy Connolly, who sat on the Wellness Committee. “The restriction is the recognition of that child’s birthday with food or beverage items on that child’s birthday.”

Connolly said the district’s past wellness policy had sought to encourage teachers and parents to consider nutritious foods or nonfood recognitions.

“I don’t think it has been effective, and I think it is time for us to try and make those expectations more clear,” she said.